Daily Times

Strictly Come Dancing professional Amy Dowden is not sure if her wedding will take place this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. The dancer, who has been on BBC One’s flagship dancing series since 2015, was due to wed fellow dancer Ben Jones in Wales later this year.

She told Hello! Magazine: “I don’t want to put family members at risk, and I want people to have plenty of advance notice if we do change the date. A lot of the Strictly lot will start booking tours for next year, so if we change it, I need to let people know.

“I change my mind every two seconds about what we want to do, but I also don’t want to look back and for it not to have been what we had planned. I’d hate it if everyone had to wear face masks and be two metres apart, or for people to put themselves at risk by coming.”

She also spoke about the cancellation of her hen do, which was due to be attended by fellow Strictly dancers Oti Mabuse and Dianne Buswell.

She told Hello!: “I didn’t have a clue what the plan was – it was going to be a big surprise.

“My bridesmaids worked so hard on it, but it’s just one of those things. There’s far worse things happening out there in the world, people are losing family members and friends, and their jobs, so I can’t complain that I didn’t get my hen.”

Dowden also spoke about being hospitalised in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak, due to a flare up of her Crohn’s disease.

She was diagnosed with the condition at the age of 19, after having symptoms for years beforehand, and previously told ITV’s This Morning: “It took me to 19 until I got diagnosed. It came on with a vengeance when I was 18.”

The NHS website says Crohn’s is a “lifelong condition in which parts of the digestive system become inflamed”.

She told Hello!: “I did end up going into hospital for a couple of nights with a flare up. That was awful because nobody could come and see me, obviously. It’s okay, there’s a lot worse happening to people, but I needed medication.” Last year, Dowden partnered CBBC presenter Karim Zeroual and the pair reached the finals of the competition, which was won by soap star Kelvin Fletcher and Mabuse.